© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
As Mumbai remained busy with Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, in a rare turn of events, veteran Opposition leader Sharad Pawar was seen at the famous Lalbaugcha Raja Ganesh pandal in the city’s Parel neighbourhood on Monday along with his family. Coming hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the pandal — Shah visits it every year — Pawar’s visit along with his son-in-law Sadanand Sule and granddaughter Revati became a talking point in the state’s political corridors about whether there was more than met the eye.
While the rivals of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) attributed political motives to Pawar’s move, his party downplayed it. “From what we gathered, it was his granddaughter Revati who expressed the desire to visit Lalbaugcha Raja. As a grandfather, he agreed. It is as simple as this,” said a senior party leader who closely works with the former Union Minister.
This much-talked-about pandal visit comes at a time when Pawar is under fire for attending an event in Mumbai last month in which he shared the stage with a writer who has received backlash from Hindu right-wing activists for allegedly making offensive remarks about Hindu gods and religious leaders.
At the Sambhaji Brigade National Convention held in Navi Mumbai on August 22, writer Dnyanesh Maharao questioned the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Pawar and the Congress’s Kolhapur MP Shahu Maharaj were present at the convention at the time.
“How can a person (Lord Ram) who listens to a dhobi and kicks out his pregnant wife be a God?” asked Maharao. “We should be ashamed that we are building temples for such a person … Has someone thrown out my pregnant sister from their house, would I have sat quietly? I would have taken her husband to task.”
Maharao also took digs at the followers of a religious preacher known as Swami Samarth.
With online Hindu rightwing platforms targeting Pawar for being present at the event and for not speaking up against Maharao, BJP leaders said Pawar’s public appearance at one of the most well-known Ganesh Puja pandals could be a strategy to blunt the criticism coming his way and ensure this does not backfire for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), one of whose constituents is the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray. The BJP’s alliance partners Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party have not commented on the matter.
“Pawar’s visit is political. With the Assembly polls in sight, he wants to reach out to the Hindu vote bank. The emergence of Mahayuti has brought this change,” said state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule,
State minister Sudhir Mungantiwar of the BJP said, “It took three decades for Pawar to visit Lalbaugcha Ganesh. Probably, he is praying to fulfil the wish of making his daughter Supriya Sule CM of Maharashtra. Unfortunately, it will not happen as Mahayuti will return to power.”
“It is strange to see Pawar offering puja at Lalbaugcha Raja. It is a political compulsion not an act of devotion. For the last 40 years, we have never seen him going to temples or places of worship,” said BJP MLC Pravin Darekar, a former Leader of the Opposition of the Legislative Council.
Darekar was referring to Pawar’s image as a political leader oblivious to matters of faith. In his six-decade political career, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister has rarely been seen making public visits to temples and religious ceremonies and has stayed away from self-styled godmen. An NCP (SP) leader, who did not wish to be named, said that once when Pawar’s advisers suggested that he visit some “baba (religious preacher)”, he politely turned them down saying, “I do not disrespect your views. But I do not get into such things.” On another occasion, when asked if he believed in God, Pawar is believed to have said, “I don’t believe in religious dogmas. But yes there is some power that one has to acknowledge.”
Days after the Navi Mumbai convention, Pawar himself addressed the matter at a Warkari Sammelan — warkaris are devout worshippers of Vitthal, regarded as a form of Vishnu — organised by his party in Pune. “A lot has been said about whether I am an atheist or not. I wish to reveal that I have visited temples to seek the blessings of Lord Panduranga (Pandharpur, whose reigning deity is Vitthal). I never publicised it. Why should you make the whole world know about your temple visits?” said the NCP (SP) chief.
“Whether one believes in God or not is a matter of individual preference. The connection between an individual and their faith is personal. Why should BJP judge Pawar?” said an NCP (SP) leader who did not wish to be named.
NCP (SP) leader Jitendra Awadh said, “It is not easy to decode why Sharad Pawar does what he does. The BJP can keep guessing and making wild charges against him and the party in vain.”
